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Get UCI out of drug testing: LeMond

Professional cycling won't clean up its doping problem until drug testing is run by someone other than the sport's governing body, former Tour de France winner Greg LeMond said Monday.

"Drug testing has to be separated", from the International Cycling Union, known as UCI, LeMond said. "It's not a game."

LeMond was speaking at a University of Texas at Austin symposium on doping in sports. LeMond says riders don't trust the sport's governing body, which has had to defend itself against criticism from US officials that it helped Lance Armstrong cover up doping offences.

LeMond won the Tour de France in 1986, 1989 and 1990 and is now recognised as the only American winner after Armstrong was stripped last year of his seven victories.

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"I want to see cycling get to where I can say I can see a real winner," LeMond said.

Joining LeMond for the two-hour panel was his wife, Kathy, Betsy Andreu, a key witness against Armstrong and the wife of former Armstrong teammate Frankie Andreu, and Bill Bock, attorney for the US Anti-Doping Agency, which investigated Armstrong. Armstrong did not attend the meeting in the city where he lives.

Bock noted that the UCI was highly critical of the USADA investigation and tried to stop it.

"They demanded we drop the case," Bock said.

Betsy Andreu said doping in sports won't clean up until athletes face criminal charges for cheating. A federal criminal grand jury had investigated Armstrong but prosecutors dropped the case in February 2012 without explanation.

"Make doping a crime. Athletes don't want to face jail," Andreu said.

LeMond has clashed with Armstrong for more than a decade since he publicly criticised Armstrong's relationship with Italian sports doctor Michele Ferrari, who is now a central figure in the Armstrong case and has been banned from sports for life. LeMond said the fight with Armstrong led to him being forced out of the cycling world.